Iceland has become the latest major supermarket to bow to pressure from campaigners and agree to introduce ‘suitable for vegans’ labelling across its own brand portfolio.
Animal rights activism group Animal Aid had lobbied the frozen discounter to introduce the labelling as part of its Mark it Vegan campaign.
However, the labelling may not be seen on shelves for “some time” as the rollout would be a “long and complex process”, Iceland told Animal Aid in a letter. Iceland declined to comment on the commitment when approached by The Grocer.
But regardless of the length of time it would take to introduce the labelling, Animal Aid vegan outreach campaign manager Tod Bradbury welcomed the commitment by the retailer.
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“This will make a huge difference not only to vegans, but to vegetarians, reducetarians, those wanting to try vegan food, and those who purchase vegan food for family members.”
It follows Iceland’s announcement it would expand its plant-based No Bull range with an extra 13 meat-free SKUs from 3 September.
Some of Iceland’s vegan-friendly range - including the runaway success No Bull burger, which became its most popular product of the summer - feature a ‘suitable for vegans’ notice alongside the list of ingredients.
It will join Aldi, Asda and Tesco in a commitment to clearly label its own-label offer. Morrisons became the last of the big four supermarkets to commit to marking its vegan-friendly products as such in March.
Animal Aid also offers retailers a range of free-to-use designs for vegan labelling to avoid the cost of registering products for approval with The Vegan Society.
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